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Forums - General - Japan loves Obama

HappySqurriel said:
akuma587 said:
Social Security can be fixed, its just going to piss a lot of people off when we try to fix it.

 

Social Security is (pretty much) an unfunded pension ... The only way to fix it is to scrap it and replace it with something better which (basically) means that a large group of people have to pay into it without getting any benefits from it.

Social Security is still in the green.  What are you talking about?  Unfunded does not mean you are running yearly surpluses.  It is projected to go into the red in the future, which can be easily solved by:

1) Raising the age that people can initially collect at to correlate with the increase in average life expectancy (doesn't take a statistician to tell you that).

2) Increase the amount of income that is taxable by payroll taxes on people making over $100,000.

3) Decrease benefits, especially for those who were in a higher tax bracket (at least until the baby boomer generation passes since they have offset the balance)

4) Potentially increase payroll taxes across the board as needed if you are still running low, and then drop them back down when the boomer generation passes.

Its no different than anything else.  You decrease spending and increase your income and you will remain solvent.

 



We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers…Also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of beer, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls.  The only thing that really worried me was the ether.  There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge. –Raoul Duke

It is hard to shed anything but crocodile tears over White House speechwriter Patrick Buchanan's tragic analysis of the Nixon debacle. "It's like Sisyphus," he said. "We rolled the rock all the way up the mountain...and it rolled right back down on us...."  Neither Sisyphus nor the commander of the Light Brigade nor Pat Buchanan had the time or any real inclination to question what they were doing...a martyr, to the bitter end, to a "flawed" cause and a narrow, atavistic concept of conservative politics that has done more damage to itself and the country in less than six years than its liberal enemies could have done in two or three decades. -Hunter S. Thompson

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akuma587 said:
HappySqurriel said:
akuma587 said:
Social Security can be fixed, its just going to piss a lot of people off when we try to fix it.

 

Social Security is (pretty much) an unfunded pension ... The only way to fix it is to scrap it and replace it with something better which (basically) means that a large group of people have to pay into it without getting any benefits from it.

Social Security is still in the green.  What are you talking about?  Unfunded does not mean you are running yearly surpluses.  It is projected to go into the red in the future, which can be easily solved by:

1) Raising the age that people can initially collect at to correlate with the increase in average life expectancy (doesn't take a statistician to tell you that).

2) Increase the amount of income that is taxable by payroll taxes on people making over $100,000.

3) Decrease benefits, especially for those who were in a higher tax bracket (at least until the baby boomer generation passes since they have offset the balance)

4) Potentially increase payroll taxes across the board as needed if you are still running low, and then drop them back down when the boomer generation passes.

Its no different than anything else.  You decrease spending and increase your income and you will remain solvent.

 

No social security isn't in the green.

It was in the green however the government spent all that money and all there is left is a big "IOU" meaning we're running on what's coming in now to fund those who are living now.

There is no money in the Social Security Trust Fund.  We're living hand to mouth.

These [Trust Fund] balances are available to finance future benefit payments and other Trust Fund expenditures – but only in a bookkeeping sense.... They do not consist of real economic assets that can be drawn down in the future to fund benefits. Instead, they are claims on the Treasury that, when redeemed, will have to be financed by raising taxes, borrowing from the public, or reducing benefits or other expenditures. The existence of large Trust Fund balances, therefore, does not, by itself, have any impact on the Government’s ability to pay benefits. (from FY 2000 Budget, Analytical Perspectives, p. 337)

Just like everything else, SS was funded on the dumbass principle that "Hey our economy will constantly grow and always get better right?"

 



akuma587 said:
HappySqurriel said:
akuma587 said:
Social Security can be fixed, its just going to piss a lot of people off when we try to fix it.

 

Social Security is (pretty much) an unfunded pension ... The only way to fix it is to scrap it and replace it with something better which (basically) means that a large group of people have to pay into it without getting any benefits from it.

Social Security is still in the green.  What are you talking about?  Unfunded does not mean you are running yearly surpluses.  It is projected to go into the red in the future, which can be easily solved by:

1) Raising the age that people can initially collect at to correlate with the increase in average life expectancy (doesn't take a statistician to tell you that).

2) Increase the amount of income that is taxable by payroll taxes on people making over $100,000.

3) Decrease benefits, especially for those who were in a higher tax bracket (at least until the baby boomer generation passes since they have offset the balance)

4) Potentially increase payroll taxes across the board as needed if you are still running low, and then drop them back down when the boomer generation passes.

Its no different than anything else.  You decrease spending and increase your income and you will remain solvent.

 

So you'd be entirely happy if you were working for a company where your "Pension" was based on the premise that you paid today so someone else could retire, and down the road someone else would pay so you could retire? I don't know about anyone else, but I want my retirement savings to actually be stored in an account where I don't have to depend on their being someone to pay my way down the road.

 



Kasz216 said:
No social security isn't in the green.

It was in the green however the government spent all that money and all there is left is a big "IOU" meaning we're running on what's coming in now to fund those who are living now.

There is no money in the Social Security Trust Fund.  We're living hand to mouth.

These [Trust Fund] balances are available to finance future benefit payments and other Trust Fund expenditures – but only in a bookkeeping sense.... They do not consist of real economic assets that can be drawn down in the future to fund benefits. Instead, they are claims on the Treasury that, when redeemed, will have to be financed by raising taxes, borrowing from the public, or reducing benefits or other expenditures. The existence of large Trust Fund balances, therefore, does not, by itself, have any impact on the Government’s ability to pay benefits. (from FY 2000 Budget, Analytical Perspectives, p. 337)

Just like everything else, SS was funded on the dumbass principle that "Hey our economy will constantly grow and always get better right?"

And I take it from what you've said that this "virtual" trust fund is not this way by design, but rather because it's been stripped by greedy politicians?  Then why are you blaming Social Security itself for this problem? 



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supermario128 said:
Who doesn't love Obama, besides the KKK.

Again. The 55 million Americans who voted for McCain.



"We'll toss the dice however they fall,
And snuggle the girls be they short or tall,
Then follow young Mat whenever he calls,
To dance with Jak o' the Shadows."

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outlawauron said:
supermario128 said:
Who doesn't love Obama, besides the KKK?

Again. The 55 million Americans who voted for McCain.

Does he need to ask the question again?

(This is a joke, I am not really accusing all 55 million McCain voters of being racist.)



I would cite regulation, but I know you will simply ignore it.

steven787 said:
outlawauron said:
supermario128 said:
Who doesn't love Obama, besides the KKK?

Again. The 55 million Americans who voted for McCain.

Does he need to ask the question again?

(This is a joke, I am not really accusing all 55 million McCain voters of being racist.)

I would be angry, but it's kinda funny.

 

Just be glad I don't live in Mississippi.  



"We'll toss the dice however they fall,
And snuggle the girls be they short or tall,
Then follow young Mat whenever he calls,
To dance with Jak o' the Shadows."

Check out MyAnimeList and my Game Collection. Owner of the 5 millionth post.